


In the low lamp light I was free

by voices_in_my_head



Category: DC Cinematic Universe, Justice League (2017)
Genre: 52 Weeks of Writing, Established Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 09:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7679692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"“Do you like it?” Arthur asked, silently swimming towards him and even after all this time Bruce was still trying to figure out how he did that because Bruce had trained in the shadows, so that he could be unnoticeable, but Arthur… he was a king, made to be admired, and yet he still managed to swim and walk around silently, like anyone could ever not notice his presence."</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the low lamp light I was free

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for this week was: story set at sea and that new trailer was sooo shippable and so here we are. Arthur and Bruce have been in a relationship for a while, so don't be surprised when they act all... lovey-dovey... or as lovey-dovey as Bruce can get.

Bruce felt amazed. It wasn’t an unknown feeling, especially after the last couple of years, with a man flying down from the sky and then suddenly realizing that meta-humans weren’t just a thesis but were here, now and that Bruce needed their help. Of course, being amazed didn’t always mean a good thing.

The last time Bruce had felt amazed had been when he’d seen the destruction a group of aliens could cause on a major city and the time before that… the least said about that, the better. Bruce didn’t know how he’d survived either of those events, especially the latter, but he had, and standing in Atlantis he was glad for it.

It was an amazing city, to say the least. It was shiny, golden, big… futuristic. Bruce couldn’t help but to think, “Alfred would have loved this” and for a moment he was back to being eight years old and being told about the stars around them and all the other planets and exactly how big the universe was by his grandfather.

“Do you like it?” Arthur asked, silently swimming towards him and even after all this time Bruce was still trying to figure out how he did that because Bruce had trained in the shadows, so that he could be unnoticeable, but Arthur… he was a king, made to be admired, and yet he still managed to swim and walk around silently, like anyone could ever not notice his presence.

“It’s beautiful,” Bruce answered, not looking away from the city for a few more moments before finally turning to Arthur. He smiled and it was small, but real. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

“It is I who is honoured that you accepted my invitation, beloved,” Arthur replied in his old way, taking Bruce’s hand lightly and kissing his knuckles. The only reason Bruce didn’t blush was because he’d trained himself out of that habit years before and perhaps because he was also getting used to Arthur’s ways, though he couldn’t help but to wonder everyday how it had come that he was the one that Arthur had decided to court, from everyone in the world.

“I would never say no to visiting your home, Arthur,” Bruce replied and smiled again, though to be fair, the previous smile had never completely left his face. It was impossible not to smile around Arthur, or at least to feel warm and wasn’t that another paradox, when this man came from the depths of the cold sea.

Arthur smiled back at him, showing him his teeth and it never ceased to amuse Bruce how he could be so sweet one moment and the next be back to that man he’d first met, who hadn’t shied from his look and had been more than ready for a fight. Bruce could admit, at least in his mind, that he loved him all the more for that.

They stayed silent for some more minutes.

Bruce couldn’t stop moving his eyes from place to place. The houses all looked different. Some looked very old, though magnificent, while others were small and painted different colours. It was like there was no rule; people just did what they wanted. It was seen in the way they dressed too. There were the ones that looked really for balls and then those who’d come out of a thrift shop.

“What are you thinking about?” Arthur finally asked, in his normal quiet tone. Bruce had only heard him raise his voice a few times, usually against an enemy or when one of his subjects came to give some less pleasant news.

“You. And the city… and the sea,” Bruce answered without thinking hard. There were times where he left people waiting for a reply for a long time, thinking of every word carefully, and sometimes wanting people to sweat a little bit, but with Arthur that very rarely happened. Arthur was ready to listen to everything he had to say and would wait however long Bruce chose to take to answer, and then of course, would have a ready reply. Bruce had learnt that it was more fun to just speak his mind, hoping to one day catch the other man off guard. It hadn’t happened yet.

Arthur made a rumbling sound from his chest and Bruce looked quickly at him, feeling his heart skipping a beat, like it always did around this imposing and beautiful man.

“What about it?”

“The city and you are like the sea. Unpredictable, not following anyone’s laws, yet calm… And beautiful,” Bruce sent him a smile. He never flirted with Arthur, not after the first time and how Arthur had replied with, “why do you hide behind that mask?” but he enjoyed the occasional compliment.

“And scary?” Arthur asked after squeezing his hand and then not letting go.

Bruce didn’t reply right away, looking back at the city. “I’m not scared of Atlantis or of you.”

“What about the unknown?” Bruce turned to Arthur. “My existence is a surprise to everyone of your world. As was Superman’s and Wonder Woman’s… surely, you must wonder what else is out there and as we often hear, we fear what we don’t know.”

“I was never afraid of you, or of Clark or of Diana. I was… angry at Clark and amazed at Diana and…” he looked at Arthur, trying to remember what he’d felt when he’d first seen him. “I thought you were wild, an untamed force of nature but I wasn’t afraid of you.”

“Why not?” Arthur asked in a curious tone.

Bruce almost didn’t reply. There were still some things that he wasn’t capable of uttering out loud, even though he knew Arthur wouldn’t judge and was there for him. Still, Arthur had asked and Bruce felt content, calm in the middle of Atlantis. It was like the sea was washing away his fears, at least a little bit.

“I’d heard your stories. You were a good man, that’s why I looked for you. I didn’t trust you but I thought you would help. And…” Bruce looked back at the city, feeling himself go tense, “I’ve met true evil and I was afraid. For me, for others…” Arthur squeezed his hand again but didn’t stop him from talking. Arthur never shied away from the hard conversations. “I’ve seen the worst human kind has to offer and from the moment I met you, I knew that wasn’t you.”

Arthur didn’t reply, just kept holding onto his hand and Bruce practised some breathing exercises, trying to get back that peace.

“I thought you were a fool when I first met you,” Arthur started and Bruce turned his head to him, smirking to himself. Arthur hadn’t exactly looked impressed when they’d first met, after all.

“I was a king and you were just…” he shrugged, “you didn’t treat me like I was a king and I knew you didn’t know I was one at the time, but… I found you foolish, yet endearing.”

Bruce made a sound almost like a snort, though not precisely one, having been taught out of the habit by Alfred as a child. “Not something I usually hear said about me.”

“Which part? Because I can assure you Diana calls you a fool often,” Arthur told him with a smile and Bruce gave a short laugh. It wasn’t one of his normal habits, laughing, but he was trying to do it more often, especially around Arthur, who was usually the one that made him want to laugh and smile and occasionally even write poetry, though he never actually did it.

“I’m not surprised,” Bruce said and smiled at the thought of Diana, who treated him like a friend, yet sometimes like a mother too, and was never afraid of saying what she thought. Bruce was truly glad that when he’d told her, “I’ve met women like you before” she’d seen it more as a, “oh, look at this precious human and his silly ideas” kind of thing and had replied in that way instead of actually showing him how she was unlike anyone he’d ever met before, man or woman. Bruce was sure he wouldn’t have survived that demonstration.

“There were not many people who had ever treated me with such little decorum… and lived to tell the tale,” Arthur sent him his shark smile again and Bruce smiled back, knowing he meant it as a compliment. Or perhaps just wanting to remind Bruce of how gracious he’d been when he hadn’t taken his life at that old pub. “I could see you were a good man, though also reckless. You say I’m like the sea, yet you remind me of the waves. Unafraid of going head to head with everyone, of grounding your heels until you have your way.”

Bruce shrugged, “it comes with having been an only child and a billionaire.”

Arthur sent him a look, unamused by his words, to which Bruce just smiled charmingly in response. It was always amusing to see Arthur’s unimpressed look, though sometimes it reminded him uncomfortably of Alfred and once he’d actually seen that look from both of them at the same time. He still shivered remembering that moment.

They went back to being silent after that. It felt a bit abrupt, like Arthur had cut his though in half but just as Arthur had learnt to wait for Bruce to think his thoughts through before letting them out, he too had learnt that sometimes Arthur saw things differently from him, from everyone he’d ever met before. It meant that Bruce never knew what was going to happen next and once upon a time he might have seen that as a bad thing but now he saw it as exhilarating, something keeping him on his toes, always demanding his attention, because if he let go for even one second he would get lost.

Suddenly Bruce thought of something and looked sideways to Arthur, who was looking at his city with love and respect and all those other good and clean emotions that had run away from Bruce so long ago. He almost asked, “why me?” but they’d had that conversation before, many times in fact, when Bruce got afraid of commitment, of being happy and having that taken away, and every time Arthur chased him. He had been straight from the beginning; if he ever thought, for even one second, that Bruce truly wanted him to leave, he would, but if not, then he would never let go of him. Arthur called him strong and precious and told him he loved him and Bruce was confused on how he’d gotten this but mostly he just worked his hardest to be worthy of him.

“How did you know I needed this?”

Arthur didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “Everyone needs Atlantis.”

Bruce looked at him surprised. That had not been what he’d been expecting, in the least. Arthur turned his body completely, so that he was looking in front at him. Bruce turned to him as well.

“Atlantis is different from your cities. It is not better, not incorruptible and free of crimes and cruelty, but it is alive and free in a way your cities are not. It is unbound by us. It can exist without us,” Arthur made a pause, one of those that told Bruce he was trying to figure out how to explain something in English. In the end, he said it in Atlantian, which Bruce knew he had to learn it, but wasn’t doing many progresses yet, what with Kryptonian and Amazonian also being on the list. “I can’t translate it correctly but to me, Atlantis is like… a mother. It raised me and taught me and loved me and I would be nothing without it and its population. It makes me feel alive and sometimes you need a reminder of how that is like, Bruce.”

Bruce didn’t reply to that. He of course knew that; he’d made it that way, after all. But slowly he was learning to live again, to take a pause and enjoy the scenery instead of looking for every little detail on it and how it could help him or break him on his mission.

“Atlantis is my heart,” Arthur continued and Bruce’s heart didn’t skip a beat this time, but for some seconds he felt like all the air had been stolen from his lungs. Arthur’s eyes had always been his favourite part of him, though he couldn’t say they weren’t intimidating. Arthur raised the hand that wasn’t holding his and put it against his face. Arthur smiled sweetly and Bruce was sure any time now he was going to pass out from the lack of air. At least his last image would be of something nice. “You are part of my heart too, Bruce.”

Bruce didn’t know what to reply to that. He of course knew Arthur meant it; Arthur always meant what he said, for better or for worse, and sometimes Bruce regretted introducing him to Diana, because he had gotten a lot more headaches ever since but he’d also caught them laughing together and sharing jokes in other languages and Diana seemed more relaxed and Barry had been a bit afraid of them at the beginning, of himself, but he’d grown into himself and Alfred had tuned out his sass a little bit and Bruce was in love, irremediably, ardently, with the man in front of him.

Bruce closed his eyes and moved his forehead until he was touching Arthur’s.

“Atlantis is beautiful,” he said in a whisper and held on.


End file.
